I just found this bd after doing some research on homeopathy. I'm considering treatment myself for chronic autoimmune thyroid disease but my husband's recent experience has me nervous about trying homeopathy myself.

My husband was being treated for chronic fatigue, sleep disturbances, and irritable bowel syndrome and he was doing pretty well until the last remedy. The dr meant to give him a 200c arsenicum and grabbed the wrong bottle by mistake, giving him a 1m arsenicum. He didn't realize what happened until after my husband took it.

Well, up until now my husband's healing symptoms have been fairly mild and manageable, but this time it was like getting hit by a freight train! He had severe migraines that lasted for over a week, extreme fatigue, insomnia, diarrhea, and severe blurred vision. He was incapacitated for over a week and still isn't back to where he was before taking that last remedy.

Now I'm afraid to try homeopathy because my thyroid disease is very delicately balanced and if I were to get a major aggravation of my symptoms, it might go completely out of control. Also I can't afford to take time off from work right now if I became incapacitated by a wrong remedy or wrong dose.

I had no idea that homeopathy could be so powerful. I always thought of it as a gentle healing modality, but now that I know how much of a punch it can pack, I'm scared of it.

Any thoughts on this? Is there a way to take it slow and easy with homeopathy?

Thanks for any replies!

Shirl

Dear Shirl,

We have special potencies for sensitive people.
I would never have given your husband a 1M or even a 200C, but more than likely a 6C three times a day in water, with the warning to immediately stop the remedy at the first sign of an aggravation and we would discuss ways of scaling back to avoid more aggravations in the future.

The problem with high potencies given one time is they cannot be adjusted, as you've seen, and all one can do is wait and hope it will be over soon.
I think we can and should do better than this.

Efforts at antidoting this 1M potency should be made. Essential oil of peppermint, rubbed on his chest and neck might work. Perhaps others here will give their experiences with antidoting.

Other gentle potencies are the "LM" potencies, there's just a little more involved in terms of teaching the patient how to order and prepare them.

So, did you say you wanted to treat yourself for your thyroid problem? Or did you want the help of someone here?

Snoopy

Hi Snoopy!

Thanks for the quick reply. My husband is doing better now and I think he's over the worst of the crisis, so we're going to ride it out for the moment. The dr said that even if he had another flare-up, it shouldn't be as bad as this one. But it's good to know that antidoting is a possiblity, if necessary.

As for me, I'm dithering over whether or not to see a practitioner or treat myself or what. I found a program you can buy that helps you pick out the right remedy based on your symptoms, but I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not. I know nothing about homeopathy so I wouldn't know where to begin. And I was considering asking you guys for your help, but it seems like you would need a lot of information that I'm not sure I'd be comfortable posting on the web. Is that silly? I just don't know what to do at this point. The only thing I do know is that my husband and I don't ever plan to go back to his dr again.

Any suggestions?

Shirl

Dear Shirl.

I can recommend Dr Leela at homeopathy2health as a practitioner who is familiar with Lm's for safe and gentle healing if you are uncomfortable about posting info here.

YOu can also look at www.homeopathy-cures.com and see if there is a practitioner in your state to see in person. I would find out if they use low potencies, water potencies and are well versed in LM prescribing.

__________________
Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to animals. For they are without sin and you in your greatness defile the earth by your appearance on it and leave traces of you foulness after you. Dostoyevsky

Shirl,

It's www.homeopathy2health.com

Check out the site and see what you think.

Snoopy

There are some wonderful homeopaths in California. Check out http://www.homeopathyhome.com/direct...isations.shtml to find another practitioner near you. If you want to e-mail me privately, I can recommend some people, since I lived in California for almost 30 years.

Vithoulkas says that when you get one of those severe aggravations, the amelioration is often especially long lasting.

In your case, if you are especially sensitive, or an aggravation could cause problems, as Snoopy said, there are different ways of administering the remedy.

Also, please be sure to let your husband's homeopath know why you wont be coming back. He needs to know what happened so he can make sure it doesn't happen again with someone else.

__________________
Shirley Reischman

Auto Immune Thyroid Disease is not for the fainthearted Homeopath
They must be properly Classically Trained Homeopaths.........however the cure / amelioration which Homeopathy holds out is far far better than the suffering you currently endure or the lousy Allopathic medications like Synthyroid

We wish that our first port of call with my Husbands Auto Immune Thyroid Disease had been Homeopathy because the ministrations by the Allopaths have pretty permanantly wrecked his life

Wow...thanks for all the responses everyone!

Barb, I checked out Dr. Leela's site and found it to be very interesting (thanks for the link Snoopy). I'm considering trying her. But I also found a classically trained homeopathist near where I live who I talked to yesterday and she sounds like she understands my concerns and is able to take a gentle approach with me. I really liked her from the phone conversation so I'm strongly leaning towards seeing her. At least now I have some idea of how to make sure I'm not being treated too aggressively.

Pat, I agree that autoimmune thyroid disease is not to be trifled with. That's why I hesitate to experiment on myself. I've gotten into trouble on more than one occasion from trying alternative treatments that only aggravated the situation. I've been on meds for 13 years and I truly regret ever starting them. I'm praying that there's a way to get my body functioning on its own again, especially since none of my allopathic drs seem able or willing to help me. They act like my complaints are all in my head. I really feel for your husband because I know how much damage those meds can do to your body. Do you think it's possible to be cured of the disease once a person has been on meds for many years? I would love to be able to stop taking this stuff. And I'm tired of being dependent on drs who don't care or just don't understand why I'm not getting better on their treatment.

Shirley, I agree that we should inform my husband's homeopath why we're moving on. I think he was very careless and caused my poor husband much needless suffering. I just hope that there will be a positive side to this remedy to offset all the misery it caused.

Would someone clarify to me what a gentle approach in homeopathy is defined by? What potency range or dosing of a remedy would be considered appropriate for a sensitive individual? I'd like to make sure I'm on the same page with whoever I end up seeing.

Thanks again for all your help! This is a great group! I'm so glad I found this bd.

Shirl

Dear Shirl,

A gentle approach would be starting with, for instance, LM/1 and going up the LM scale in order: LM/1, LM/2, LM/3
etc. Some homeopaths think LM/1 is too
"namby-pamby" and will start with LM/3 and skip to LM/6 and so on. This approach is just as slip-shod as the treatment your husband got. LM is short for 50,000, and it means that the ratio of original substance to water is one part substance to 50,000 parts water; meaning that it's very dilute, plus, it can be diluted even further by the patient if she or he thinks it's still too strong. Unfortunately, your average homeopath does not have experience with LM's.

(LM's come in poppy seed-sized pellets called #10 pellets, and one such pellet is dropped into a 4 oz. bottle of water, and a tsp. from that bottle is added to a half-cup of water, stirred, and one tsp. from the cup is taken by the patient, the rest thrown away, and before all subsequent doses, the bottle must be succussed--which means pounded into your opposite palm--roughly 10 times
to increase the potency ever so slightly.)

Barring knowledge about LM's, a gentle dosing schedule would be a 6C in water, 2 or three times a day, followed by a 9C once or twice a day if the 6C stopped working and the 9C can be followed by a 12C once a day, all in water, all succussed before each dose. By the time you get to 12C you'd probably be significantly better. All these water potencies can be adjusted by you--we have someone on this BB who is only taking one drop of a 6C twice a day with 2 soft succussions before each use.

They always say that the important thing is to find the right remedy, so hopefully if the new homeopath can do that, she won't make a big fuss over potency if you say, "Here's how I'd like to take it."

Let us know.

Snoopy

Thanks Snoopy! That's just what I needed to know.

I'll let you guys know what happens for sure. In the meantime I'll probably be lurking here quite a bit so that I can learn as much as possible about all this.

I feel hopeful now that I can get well with homeopathy. Thank you all!

Shirl